Crew Defends Teacher in Book Dispute

By LYNETTE HOLLOWAY

Published: December 15, 1998

Speaking out for the first time on the ''Nappy Hair'' controversy, Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew said yesterday that it was unfortunate that a group of ill-informed residents had succeeded in driving a white teacher from her classroom for using the book.

''This is a case of parents rushing to a judgment of a teacher without knowing the facts or the context at all,'' Dr. Crew said in a telephone interview. ''It's a misguided deed that these people did.''

The teacher, Ruth A. Sherman, transferred to Public School 131 in Jamaica, Queens, about a week ago from P.S. 75 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, after some black parents publicly threatened her for using the book, which is a critically acclaimed story by a black scholar. The teacher's removal from her classroom generated widespread discussion about the book and its merits.

Dr. Crew added that it would be unfortunate if other teachers shied away from multicultural material. ''I would hope that other teachers would use books that would give children positive images of themselves,'' he said.

At the same time, Dr. Crew said he supported a District 32 principal's decision last week to remove another critically acclaimed book, ''War Comes to Willy Freeman,'' which uses the word ''nigger'' in a historical context in one passage. The book, by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, was scheduled for classroom use by sixth graders at Intermediate School 296 in Bushwick. But the principal, Linda Faucetta, decided against it out of fear that it would generate the same kind of outcry as did ''Nappy Hair.'' She retained it in classroom libraries for optional reading.

Dr. Crew's comments underscored his position on giving principals and superintendents wide latitude to run their own schools without interference or second-guessing from him. In the case of ''Nappy Hair,'' the superintendent and principal backed Ms. Sherman's use of the book after conducting a brief investigation of its merits but began requiring that extracurricular books be registered with the principal's office.

''Nappy Hair,'' by Carolivia Herron, tells a story about slavery though a call-and-response style derived from gospel music about the history of the kinky texture of some black people's hair.

The incident began at a public meeting Nov. 23 at P.S. 75 when parents criticized Ms. Sherman for using ''Nappy Hair'' in class. They were angered by black-and-white photocopied pages of a book illustration left in mailboxes around the community. The fliers depicted a dark-skinned black child complaining about having nappy hair.

Confronted by the group of 50 parents, Ms. Sherman was shouted down and threatened as she tried to explain that the book was positive and that the photocopies did not do justice to the colorful illustrations in the book. Taken out of context, the illustrations can appear jarring and the text insensitive.

Ms. Sherman was removed from class for her safety, school officials said. In interviews, Ms. Herron said that she had written the book to turn something historically negative, nappy hair, into something positive by celebrating its attributes. Ms. Sherman refused to return to the school out of fear for her safety.

''There are lots of people who will unfortunately see this and recoil at the prospect of using material that may be even the slightest bit insulting because they won't know the particulars of a culture,'' Dr. Crew said. ''At the same time we are trying to give children strong images of themselves, we're also sending a message that you better not do it if you are a white teacher.''

One way to avoid such misunderstandings, Dr. Crew said, is to encourage stronger parental involvement in the schools. Last month, he proposed school leadership teams, which give strong new powers to teachers and parents in running the city's 1,100 schools.

On the other hand, he supported Ms. Faucetta's decision not to distribute the book ''War Comes to Willy Freeman,'' a story about the Revolutionary War told from a slave's point of view, in class because it could have ramifications, he said. The book, however, will be placed in classroom libraries if students wish to read it.